While the New York Giants were training in Marlin Springs, Texas before the 1912 season, John McGraw wrote (his name appeared on the byline) an article published in newspapers across the country about what it took “to become a big league ballplayer.”
John McGraw, 1912
McGraw wrote:
“If you have speed in your legs, in your arms, if you are physically strong, know human nature, don’t use tobacco, you’ll make a ballplayer.”
Included in the article were “McGraw’s Maxims:”
Forget what you know and learn over
Don’t drink
Eat two meals a day
Don’t drink water on the field
The less training in winter the better
Indoor training doesn’t help
A steady player is better than a grandstand player
A country boy is better material than a college boy, because he doesn’t think he knows it all.
Reminiscent, if less colorful, than Satchel Paige’s “How to Keep Young,” written forty years later, (this has been reprinted everywhere for years, but any excuse to mention Satchel Paige…)
Satchel Paige, 1942
Avoid fried meats which angry up the blood.
If you stomach disputes you, lie down and pacify it with cool thoughts.
Keep the juices flowing by jangling around gently as you move.
Go very light on the vices, such as carrying on in society. The social ramble ain’t restful.
Avoid running at all times.
Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you.
Baseball History Daily 
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